i have been called to serve a mission for the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints for eighteen months in the nicaragua managua south mission. my family has agreed to post my weekly emails here, as well as any comments or posts they wish to add.

Monday, November 23, 2015

let´s just be real for a second. saturday i completed a year since i got my mission call. this time last year, i was telling the whole wide world that i was going to nicaragua for eighteen months. and here we are, almost eleven full months later. i have almost been away from home for a year... yikes people.

i am doing great! the medicine that the doctor helped a lot, and then

i got permission to buy a cream especially meant to treat sarna, and

that has done miracles to clear it all up. i continue to take benadryl to

stay on top of the itching, but i am no longer calling attention to myself

with all the itching. our ward mission leader noticed and gave me an

antibacterial liquid that is supposed to help with the itching as well,

sweet man. the parasite is something that i got from the mattress in

granada, but the mission yes, had a doctor actually look at it in person

because the first round of medicine didn´t do anything to calm the itching.

the rash, with all the symptons that i had, were enough evidence to know

that i had the parasite. with the conditions that are granada, it wasn´t

overly surprising really.

the greatest success this week, would have to include the fact that we

completed with all the normas. thanks to some great return missionaries,

and willing sisters, we were able to do quick spurts of divisions with the

members to cover more ground in less time. can i please ask all those that

can, to please do divisions or visits with the missionaries like once a week.

having that kind of support from the ward makes such a great difference in

all aspects of the work.

a tender mercy... we were able to teach harold and his children about prayer,

and it just went swimmingly. harold showed up to church four sundays ago,

looking for a church where his kids could have a realtionship with their savior,

and where they would have the opportunity to interact with clean kids...

something every father wants, right? well, we have been focusing on only

teaching this family with members because it just makes such a different in

everything. we taught them about the power of prayer, and it was great to

Monday, November 9, 2015

this week i can write you a letter, because i have a basis of questions again.

this week i did survive. it's so amazing here. the climate is fresh, and although

the sun is still piercing, it's accompanied by a nice wind, so it's not too bad.

my new companion is from honduras, so there's another country to add to

the companion map! we have found quite a few new investigators in the

same general area of el rosario, but i would like to go adventuring into the

other suburbs of el rosario to meet and activate converts, less actives and

find new investigators that way. we'll see how it goes.

my favorite person this week is hermanita rubi. she is the sister of a less

active we baptized this weekend and she's the cutest. her mom is super

supportive and she's kind of the next heart to change, and just, aahh! i

love this ward! everyone is just so ready to come and help us do anything.

thursday we did divisions twice, one time with about twenty minutes of

notice! #inlovewithelrosario

a favorite scripture is a little bit harder to put my finger on. lets go with

one in doctrine and covenants 33:8-12

::Open your mouths and they shall be filled, and you shall become even

as Nephi of old, who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness. Yea,

open your mouths and spare not, and you shall be laden with sheaves

upon your backs, for lo, I am with you. Yea, open your mouths and they

shall be filled, saying: Repent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord,

and make his paths straight; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; Yea,

repent and be baptized, every one of you, for a remission of your sins;

yea, be baptized even by water,and then cometh the baptism of fire and

of the Holy Ghost. Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel;

and remember that they shall have faith in me or they can in nowise be

saved::

powerful right?

our biggest challenge this weekend was getting and placing fechas. for

some reason the time just got away from us, and before we knew it, it

was eight oclock and we were short two fechas and a couple of lessons...

something a little bit difficult to recuperate.

a tender mercy... divisions with members. and returned sister missionaries.

it's so nice to be in a ward where there are four return sister missionaries.

they are still red hot with the desire to go out and preach the gospel, so

there are so willing to drop everything on a dime and help. they under-

stand the lessons and know how to be pushy and how to be nice.

sooo great.....

some goals for this week... make it through the quincena with only 60

cords. that's right. we get money on saturday and i only have 60 cords

left. here we go penny pinching! this is what college taught me!

a picture of

hermana hawkins

and hermana quezada,

the other two sisters

in our district. we had

lunch today so of course

we took some crazy

pictures. ;)

i love you all

hermana graves

OH! The picture of the old lady... This is Hermana Maria Antonia, the first member of the church here in El Rosario. She's 92 years old, and still going strong. So for all of you with a bad day, think of Dueña Antonia.

this week was one for miracles. we had the opportunity to hear the words of the president of the quorum of twelve apostles, president russell m. nelson, and i had the chance to be the first missionary of nearly four hundred to shake his hand. it makes it worth the three thirty alarm...

my companion is my vivi! something that i will explain another day... she is learning the lessons and we are working on english. she loves to sing, so we pick a hymn out of the english hymnal and sing every morning. it makes it a lot of fun to learn english!

the biggest success... making to through a nineteen hour day with only about an hour's worth of a nap. see miracle that happened above with president nelson...

greatest challenge continues to find people to teach. if you are the praying type, this would be something to help us with. pray that we find new investigators. please!

my favorite person, president nelson. hearing him for the second time as a missionary really strengthens your testimony and rereading my notes helps me focus on what i need to change and better as a missionary.

i love the prison master's conversion. read acts 16:25-33. look how quickly he accepted the gospel and how completely as well... less than 12 hours!

fun adventures... it's always an adventure to go and visit an older couple we are teaching. there is a short cut, through a finca, or like a swamp, that cuts the travel from about twenty minutes to five. when time is as precious as cold water in a nicaraguan heat, we try and use this passage way when it's dry. long story short, hermana liberato almost fell to her death climbing down one part. great laughs with my vivi.

i have been in this area now for ten weeks, two and a half months. it's possible that i will be here another ten weeks. it's not exactly set in stone.

i love you all! have a great week.

love from nicaragua!

hermana graves

my vivi decided to straighten her hair for president nelson's visit so she looked a little crazy before hand!

this week i found a jehovah's witness. for all of you ex-missionaries, you know what an interesting conversation that can lead to. it turns out that this jehovah's witness is from the states, and that my companion and i were the first mormon missionaries that he had come into contact with. what a privilege! the conversation in english made me realize how accustomed i am to talking and sharing my testimony in spanish. it was really, really hard to talk about the church in english! (i haven't decided if that's a good thing, or a bad thing, yet. i'll keep you posted!

this week the lord showed me just how humble we need to be. we didn't have a single little duckling in church yesterday, and i could have strangled the bulls that caused the problem. let me explain. it's a grandadian tradition to allow bulls to run the main streets once a year, like the running of the bulls in spain, just this bulls are a lot more lazy and less aggressive. but, nonetheless, everyone goes. but the twenty people we had lined up to go all told us, "si, yo me voy a la iglesia este domingo; no me voy por la carnival." translated (yes, i will go to church this sunday; no i will not go to the carnival) but needless to say, they are all liars. come tuesday, they won't even know what hit them!

since mom forgot to write me this week, i don't have anything else to say, just to tell mom, that i am getting fed. the sister who makes us lunch and dinner is heavenly, and i am now getting my daily portion of gallo pinto again :)

i love you all, and look forward to all of your repentance letters next week.

i hope this letter finds each and everyone of you in good health, and dry. here we are in full swing of the rainy season, and unfortunately my mounding pile of laundry never seems to go away. rainy afternoons make it hard to leave clothes out to dry!

our biggest challenge: finding new investigators. we started with a list of probably 50 people who in the past have taken the missionary discussions and have attended church, the goal being to help them take the lessons again and progress towards a baptismal date.

this week, we went to hawaii! not really, but the district (or a really small stake) put together a plane crash so that we could all learn a little bit more about the plan of salvation. all of our investigators really enjoyed it, and it was a great opportunity to fellowship some of our investigators, less actives, and converts. thank you plan of salvation!

one of our investigator's fathers makes jewelry from silver. my HLJ was a cheap one that the Church sells, and i had been searching for a brother to help me out. for 150 cords (or about five bucks) he made me one that fits just right. yippee!!

this is a cajeta. sugar, coconut, and water. that's it! it's an acquired taste, but a deliciously, calorie-full one.... we help a less active make them a couple of times a week, and it's been a really great opportunity to have gospel discussions. maybe one day her mom will be baptized. little by little, brick by brick.

a favorite scripture of the week. i finished john this week, and in the 17th chapter, we read that jesus prayed for us:

::I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.::

the lord knows us, cares for us, enough to suffer for us. we are counted as his. he knows us and wants to best.

may we always remember to pray for others. we never know which sould needs a reminder of his love.

so how are things going with my companion... well great! i got a
new companion, her name is hermana liberato. she is from the dominican republic
and she is fresh off the airplane from the MTC... yep! for all you
ex-missionaries, or people who understand that lingo, it means that i am
training hermana liberato. i am her mama, and she's my mija. it's been an adventure, something that i wasn't expecting until a little bit

later in my
mission. but here we are!

our greatest success, who have to be having

six investigators in church! and an added

bonus, two families! it was a struggle, but

something that
i am eternally grateful for.

thank you for your prayers.

a tender mercy... this opportunity to train a new sister. not
gonna lie!

for a favorite person, see the following photo taken wednesday:

a favorite scripture. one of the great things about the book of
mormon, is that it answers the questions that come from the soul:where did i
come from? why am i here? how can i have a better life? and one of my
favorites what does christ expect of me? i had the opportunity
to study in the scriptures to find these answers, and the answers that i found
are something that i have been marking in the book of mormon when we give them
to our investigators. i have totally spaced on where they all are right now,
but i will make sure to send them to you next week!

a goal... exercise. we've been working on it, but it hasn't been
completely successful quite yet. little by little.

today we visited a little diner, and the sister had the name
cokes. look what one we found!

​of course we had to take a picture... granada has some great old catholic
churches that we are going to try and visit next week.. the only problem with
going whenever we want is that they aren't in our area. (we have to ask for
permission to leave our area...) so next week... pictures!